Bruni, Leonardo

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A. Life and work

The Italian Humanist and politician Leonardus Aretinus (Leonardo B.) was born around 1370 at Arezzo and died on March 9, 1444 at Florence. He lived in Florence from the 1390s, becoming part of the Humanist network centred on the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati, whose interest in both Humanism and politics was one crucial influence on B.'s intellectual agenda, the other being B.'s study of Greek with Manuel Chrysoloras (from around 1397). In 1405, B. became apostolic secretary at the Roman Curia, wher…